DIY Water Blasters {Kiddie Sprinkler}

As a Lowe’s Creative Ideas blogger, one of the themes for this month’s project was water fun. Given that we’ve reached 110+ degree heat here in Phoenix, I was all for making a fun water play project. With no pool and 3 little boys who are totally into anything that blasts or shoots, making a water blaster sprinkler contraption seemed like it would be great for some fun water play! Pool noodles that can shoot water over 30 feet?! Hello summer play fun! Needless to say, the boys LOVE this new backyard sprinkler. It turned out better than I was envisioning and really wasn’t too hard to make. Once you have all your supplies, you could have this built & be playing in under an hour! Here’s what you’ll need (the amount will depend on what size you’re making & how many noodle blasters you want):

1/2″ clear vinyl tubing

3/4″ pvc ball valves (1 for each blaster/sprinkler station)

1/2″ x 1/2″ nylon hose barb (2 per pool noodle blaster station)

1/4″ x 1/2″ nylon hose bard (1 per blaster station)

1/2″ screw coupling (1 per blaster station)

3/4″ to 1/2″ adapter (1 per blaster station)

3/4″ cap (if you want a sprinkler station instead of a noodle blaster)

3/4″ T-coupling/joint (we needed 5)

3/4″ elbow coupling/joint (we needed 3)

3/4″ hose adapter

3/4″ x 10′ PVC pipe (we needed 3)

small pool noodles (we used about 1/2 a noodle for each station)

Making the actual pool noodle blasters is the most complicated part of the assembly (and really, it’s not too tough). Here’s a good visual that should help:

You’ll start by making the blaster nozzle. To do so, screw the 1/4″ x 1/2″ hose barb to one end of screw coupling and attach one of the 1/2″ x 1/2″ barbs to the other end.

Cut a length of vinyl tubing slightly longer than the length of pool noodle that you are going to use (so you need to decide on the pool noodle length first – since our boys are small, we decided on cutting the noodles in half). Place one end of that cut tubing onto the 1/2″ x 1/2″ barb.

Place the open end of the tubing into the pool noodle opening and lace it all the way through the noodle (we happened to have a wooden dowel that fit into the tubing to help lace things through really nicely). Once the tube is all the way through (with some extra hanging out one end), push the blaster nozzle creation into the noodle to that it is about flush with the end of the pool noodle (this part should be REALLY tight if you’re using a small pool noodle).

Now, cut off the excess tubing on the opposite end & insert the other 1/2 x 1/2 hose barb into the end of the tubing. Screw the 3/4″ to 1/2″ adapter into the open end of the hose barb. This is the part that will attach to the PVC.

Repeat these steps for each blaster station you want to create.

Now that you have your blasters ready, you’ll need to build the base to hold everything together. We wanted 3 water blaster stations (1 for each kiddo), so we decided on a rectangle shape for ours to give some space between each blaster. Really, though, you could set this up in whatever way works best for your family & your space. The base is easy to build – just some simple pvc cuts and joints. The long pieces are each 5′, connected by a t-joint in the middle (for the sprinkler or blaster stations). And, the short sides are two 1′ pieces, connected by a t-joint for the blaster stations. The corners are all connected by elbow joints, except for the end that connects to the hose. Use a t-joint for that and add the hose adapter with a small piece of pvc.

Wherever you want a blaster station, you’ll use a t-joint so that the blaster station pipe can stick up off the base.

Cut a piece of pvc pipe, depending on how high you want your blaster cannon station. We chose to do a one-foot piece for the bottom part of each blaster station.

Attach a ball valve to the piece of cut pvc. The ball valve is there to control the water flow to the individual blaster stations. You can turn them on & off (giving other stations better water pressure).

Cut another piece of pvc (again depending on how high you want your blaster station) – we did 6 inches. Attach that cut piece to the now open end of the ball valve. Then, you’ll slide the open end of your adapter in the pool noodle blaster on to the open end of the 6-inch pvc pipe.

Repeat for each blaster station.

To make this contraption truly like a sprinkler, we decided to add a sprinkler station for some fun, controlled water spray. You don’t need this part at all, but I think it makes the whole thing more fun. To build the sprinkler, set it up exactly the same as the pipe portion of the blaster stations. But, instead of attaching a noodle blaster, you’ll attach a pvc cap and drill a few small holes in it.

Once everything is pieced together, turn the hose on and play!! We actually didn’t even have to turn the water up more than halfway to get enough water pressure to feed all 3 blasters and the sprinkler. Turning up to full blast too fast will pop apart the pipes – but if you go slowly and everything holds, you can shoot water a REALLY long way. We got at least 40 feet out of one blaster last night – so adults in the area wanting to stay dry need to watch out! The boys seriously had a blast (pun intended) with these – perfect for endless hours of summer water play fun! If you want to get even more elaborate for some serious water play, you can build a kiddie car wash! And, if you need even more water play ideas, be sure to check out this list: 25+ Water Play Activities

What summer fun water play ideas are favorites at your house?

For even more #springiscalling ideas, visit Lowes Cre­ative Ideas and fol­low along with Lowe’s on Pin­ter­est or on Insta­gram! You can sign up to receive their free Cre­ative Ideas Mag­azine, which is full of all kinds of ideas & inspi­ra­tion! There’s also a mag­a­zine app so you can have inspi­ra­tion on the go! And, this spring you can get weekly projects, tips & special values with the new “Improve with Lowe’s” app. Dis­clo­sure: I am a mem­ber of the Lowe’s Cre­ative Ideas Cre­ators & Influ­encers Net­work and receive a Lowe’s gift card to com­plete my projects. How­ever, all ideas, opin­ions, & expe­ri­ences are entirely my own.